Recently the Australian Soil and Landscape Grid was launched in Melbourne at the 2014 National Soil Science Conference. The grid, a core facility of the TERN, provide information on soil attributes (including soil texture, carbon content) every 90 m across the continent, and are available for six soil depths down to a maximum of 2 metres. Estimates of uncertainty are also included.

Emeritus Professor of Plant Pathology Brian Deverall at the University of Sydney was known for his pioneering research into plant defence. His focus was the cellular and biochemical interactions between plants and their microbial parasites, which can destroy crops and precipitate famines.

A group of leading biochar researchers from Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Thailand, UK and USA will be meeting at the University of Sydney to discuss methods of biochar analysis and environmental applications of biochar.

Third year BEnvSys students David Coleman, Michaela Dolk and James Diack filled the top three positions in the individual soil judging component, and the two Sydney Uni teams finished 'one-two' in the overall classification, which combines the individual and team judging scores.

University of Sydney team from the Faculty of Agriculture and Environment is the top placed Australian University team again at the 2014 Australian Universities Crops Competition (AUCC2014) based on the three highest scoring individuals from each university, beating five other Australian Universities including the Universities of Western Australia, Curtin, La Trobe, Charles Sturt and New England. The competition was held in Temora, NSW from 17-19 September 2014.

Prof Les Copeland was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award for significant contributions through teaching in the broad field of cereal science and technology by the American Association of Cereal Chemists-International

Three Agriculture students from the University of Sydney have visited Timor Leste to investigate food security issues facing the developing nation and talk to farmers about the daily challenges they face in producing food.

The Australian and New Zealand fresh produce industries joined together today to take proactive steps to further protect this region's well-earned reputation for producing safe, quality food by committing to a new centre dedicated to investigating and promoting the safety of the fruit and vegetables we eat and export.

Staff and students form the Department of Environmental Sciences have just returned from the 20th World Congress of Soil Science held in JeJu, South Korea between the 8 - 13 June 2014, where they made a significant contribution presenting the latest developments in soil research and outreach

The highest honour in the discipline of soil science was presented to Professor Alex McBratney, from the University of Sydney's Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, at the recent 20th World Congress of Soil Science in Jeju, Korea.

Banchgize Getie, a PhD student at the PBI, was awarded the Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum (WIT) Award. This award for early-career women wheat researchers, established in 2010, provides professional development opportunities for women working in wheat during the early stages of their career.

13 Postgraduate Scholarships for Applicants with Background in Chemical Engineering, Food Processing, Science, and Agriculture to Join ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for the Australian Food Processing Industry in the 21st Century

To equip Australia to better respond to challenges in agriculture, resources, energy and commodity pricing, the University of Sydney's disciplines of Agriculture Economics and Resource Economics (ARE) will join the School of Economics.

Australia's next generation of food technology and manufacturing experts will be educated at a new training centre led by University of Sydney chemical engineers: The ARC Biotechnology and Food Processing Training Centre

The University of Sydney met with the Chinese Vice-Minister of Agriculture Dr Li Jiayang and members of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to work on ways to help solve food security challenges.